A new concept in automated no-bake moulding for a leading steel foundry in Italy

Omega Sinto Foundry Machinery Ltd has recently completed an installation of a truly innovative, high rate production no bake moulding line facility in Italy.

FAIL is an Italian steel foundry specialising in the production of a wide variety of high value castings made from many different steel alloys such as: austenitic, ferritic, martensitic stainless steel, duplex and super duplex, high temperature, nickel-based alloys and low carbon steels.

The new system is designed to produce twenty complete moulds per hour and comprises a latest generation continuous mixer for the phenolic-urethane process, compaction table, auto strickle, rollover, flood coating and coring and closing section.

Two hundred station capacity

After coating, coring and closing, the moulds are placed on cast iron pouring pallets. Once placed the moulds are then sent to an automatic vertical stacking system with an impressive two hundred station capacity. This gives the possibility to call a specific mould to the pouring line and combine moulds for a specific alloy whilst maintaining the maximum flexibility for different operations.

This automatic control system of production is made simple by Omega’s own in-house designed RFID system, an innovative pattern recognition software technology. The microchip (tag) is embedded into the pattern; each pattern has its own recipe and once programmed the mixer and compaction table deliver the recipe automatically. The benefits include increased production, reduced material consumption by 20 per cent, improved consistency/quality and a de-skilled operation.

This also allows tracking of the mould through the various stages of production along with raw material usage analysis.

Environmental commitment

At FAIL, after the pouring operation, the required cooling time is assured by a two-level powered conveyor in an external tunnel with an enclosed fume extraction system.

Once sufficiently cooled, the moulds then reach the shake out and mechanical reclamation system. The sand is processed and a portion is returned to the mixer, whilst the remaining sand is thermally reclaimed. This allows the possibility of using the thermally reclaimed sand as facing for those alloys requiring the lowest possible gas evolution at the mould/metal interface.

This combination of technology and practical foundry engineering ensures that increased production rates with the highest quality and flexibility of operation are achieved.